Paper Doll is now on sale at Barnes and Noble’s website, both as a paperback and eBook.
Paper Doll is the story of my grandfather, his brothers, and his mother as they struggled through the Depression, then entered the fray in different ways during World War II. If you want to know what your relatives endured in the 1930s and ‘40s, this story will give you an idea. It is a true story but written as a novel. It’s a fascinating tale of how strong people reacted to difficult circumstances.
Editing, reviewing/changing based on editing, dealing with the cover, formatting for B&N, finding mistakes caused by formatting changes, I could moan and groan for twenty minutes about how much that stuff drives me crazy, but at long last, we have arrived at publication day.
I chose not to go the “advance reader” route, so there are no reviews already at the site. I will need reviews, but right now the focus is getting a copy of Paper Doll into your hands or onto your Kindle.
Paper Doll may seem like an odd title, but it was the name of my uncle’s B-24. Because of the title, it was extra important to have a cover with World War II imagery, including the B-24.
This is more than a “coming of age” story. I had (have) an interesting family, and fascinating things happened to and around them. The mother in this story (my great-grandmother) had an amazing sixth sense, which caused her to routinely see the future in an unusual way.
They lost their farm to taxes. They worked hard, including to just find work during the Depression. Then the war came.
Paper Doll definitely qualifies as a “labor of love,” considering I worked on it, researching the story, anyway, for over 20 years. Now, it has finally come together, after interviews with World War II veterans, family friends, and family members. I attended a reunion of the 489th Bomb Group in Dallas, read over 300 letters between family members, and dug up information on the internet. To give you an idea of how long it has taken to write this, the reunion in Dallas was in 2008 and I think it was in 2002 when I spoke with the pilot of Paper Doll.
The book is a true story. Dialogue had to be invented to carry the story, but in many cases, dialogue is based on lines from letters.
Please go to Barnes and Noble, purchase Paper Doll, and give it a read. It is a fascinating story to the point that some events are difficult to believe, but they are true. If you could then leave me a review afterward, I would be highly appreciative.
Thank you for reading my blog as I built up to this day. The day is finally here!
Take care.
Brian W. Peterson
Somewhere on the edge of the Great Plains